Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response. Arthur M. — Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response. Arthur M.

Author: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Insight: We live in a world that changes faster than we can process it. A new app, a medical breakthrough, an AI tool—these things arrive and reshape what we do before we've really decided how to feel about them. But here's what's interesting: our actual response to these innovations isn't determined by the technology itself. It's determined by the stories we tell ourselves, the lessons we've carried from the past, and the way our grandparents taught us to think about change. Consider how differently people react to the same new technology. Some embrace it immediately, others resist fiercely, and most of us hover somewhere uncertain. That split often comes down to which historical narratives we trust. If your family's story includes "new things destroyed our way of life," you'll approach innovation differently than someone whose tradition emphasizes "we've survived change before." Memory and myth act like a filter, deciding what we allow to matter and what we dismiss. This means the tech itself is only half the battle. The real work happens in deciding what values we want to preserve as everything transforms, and which old wisdom might actually still apply. The future isn't just about what we can build—it's about what we choose to carry forward.